What I like about the ISM is having the chance to collaborate with other people. The ISM colloquium project I did with Emilie [Casey] and Audrey [Fernandez-Fraser] was a highlight, because it was working with other people who had such different strengths and passions. I learned so much about myself and about my own calling within music, and I think it’s because we chose a topic we were passionate about and invested in. It was a real discovery interviewing different people in different choirs and different groups here at Yale, trying to find out what meaning people bring to music making. We were surprised to find the kind of concrete answers and results that we found in the interviews.

I graduated from a conservatory, and what you do in a conservatory is sing a lot, learn your music, go to studio classes – mostly, it’s music all the time. Sometimes it’s so easy to get focused on the minutia of our busy lives and issues of technique that need to come together to make a great performance. So much of music is done without thinking about the bigger context, talking about the audience, the text, or history of a piece. Not only did our project address a lot of things I want to change about my own musical process, but I found I want to spend more time on the history, on the theory, on the overall message. We were starting to find that singing easily bridges into other realms like medicine, psychology, music therapy – it’s all connected. It’s so easy to think that we’re in our own little world, working on our own projects, and tempting to assume we don’t have enough time to really collaborate. Knowing more about our surroundings really helps our own work, especially while at Yale and the ISM.

Daniel Moody is a second year Masters of Music student in voice. Originally from Cincinnati, Ohio, Daniel has nine brothers and sisters, and is a twin. He started singing in church, which grew into taking voice lessons as a teenager and eventually going into conservatory. Daniel loves church and good, quality music that helps us value ritual and sacraments.

What is gratifying about being in the ISM is the intersection between academics and creative work. When I was an undergrad here at Yale, studying English and poetry, I sort of felt like a failed academic. I didn’t know what the options were, what else I could be apart from an academic, and being an artist or poet felt inaccessible. My dream in high school was to live in New York as a writer, and then in 2010, I was living in New York as a writer! It was not at all what I imagined it would be. Coming back to Yale through the ISM does feel like coming back full circle, and also it was a chance for me to do things in a better way. There is a tension between the kind of encyclopedic thinking that I feel as a creative person, and the need for academics to narrow and focus all the time, so I feel those are two opposing forces, but it’s a productive conflict.

The best thing I can do as a writer is to be around as many different kinds of people with different filters of seeing the world. It’s not my filter, but I can learn from that. My first grad program was in poetry and writing, and I went a little deaf by the end of it. We were talking about words all the time, but you need to look at things from different perspectives and find different sources of inspiration.

I worked in the film industry for about eight years before coming here. I started when I went to Romania in 2004 to work on a short film in Bucharest. I had spent the whole year – 2003-2004 – fighting depression with movies, so I was watching a movie a day for an entire year, and really getting an education about filmmaking. I have worked in every department other than makeup and electric, but I’ve done art direction, costume, set photography, even sound. I mostly did it because I wanted to learn how to make movies and I didn’t want to go to film school. I’ve made a short film that my brother and I wrote together. We shot it in 2008, a long time ago, but I have always thought I’ll get back into filmmaking in some way, though I’d probably be interested in making movies that don’t create a lot of trash. Cinema is a hugely wasteful industry, so documentary is better in a lot of ways because you’re not creating sets and the like. Recently I represented a friend’s documentary at the Boston Film Festival, and reminded me how beautiful the language of cinema can be. It was a documentary about the Coppola family, made by a friend who lives in a little town called Bernalda, in southern Italy, which is the village the Coppola family is from.

I’m not sure how preaching and theology classes are connected to that, but I think they are. It’s all connected. It’s important for me to let my life lead me, even if the direction doesn’t always seem to make obvious sense.

Oana Marian, M.Div. ’17, came to the ISM primarily because she wanted to study with Christian Wiman, but many more things have opened up to her. She was born in Cluj, Romania, moved to Connecticut when she was 8, and lived on the East Coast until 2004. She comes to YDS and the ISM from the UK, where she lived in a wonderful village in the Lake District for just under a year.

‘I’ve been a singer for most of my life, singing in church choirs since I was eight years old. While still a part of my ministry, it’s not going to be my main role as a future Episcopal priest. There will be times I’ll have to sing and lead a congregation in song, but it won’t be the main way I live out my spirituality. Luckily, the ISM has played an integral role in my flourishing as an Episcopal seminarian, catering to interests I may not otherwise have the possibility to explore. So being in a context where I can learn about sacred music and the arts, and to live out that life while I still have the ability and the time, has been incredible.

In January of this year (2016), I was named a Seminary Fellow for an Episcopal Relief and Development trip to Ghana. For eight days we traveled around the country exploring ways in which Episcopal Relief and Development helps Ghanaians flourish. We met with Ghanaians the whole time, and it was incredible to be welcomed with song and dance by locals. Mostly Ghanaian women were the ones welcoming us, wearing brightly colored clothes – they would dance and stomp their feet as a sign of welcome and hospitality, singing in languages we didn’t understand – but music is a universal language! It’s the welcoming, hospitality, acceptance, and coming together that was important. It opens up your eyes to ways music and the arts can play a role in bringing people together.”

Michael Kurth, M.Div. ’18, is a student at Berkeley Divinity School, Yale Divinity School, and the ISM, preparing for ordained ministry in the Episcopal Church.

Working at the Yale University Art Gallery gave me the idea to apply to the ISM. Before that, I was just thinking of becoming an art historian or a professor in art history, but while working here at the gallery, I interacted with different kinds of people from different age groups – a huge portion of humanity. It inspired me to go the ISM so I could learn more about how to be with people. I started to realize that being in the art gallery wasn’t just about learning about art or teaching art, but it was really a sacred space in the sense that humans are engaging with each other and sometimes talking about big ideas – whether it’s about life, family, existence, society, or politics – and at the heart of those conversations was the work of art. Art was this portal that opened up and created a special space so people could talk about those things. It’s almost like the artwork is alive and becomes a medium for that kind of conversation.

I think the ISM is a wonderful place to see the intersection between music students, divinity students, and the visual arts. I really feel how significant my presence is because I represent a portion of the arts the ISM wants to encompass. I feel like my particular training and background and lens really mean a lot to the ‘arts’ part of “religion and the arts.” I also learn a lot from being around divinity students and music students, and hope that they can learn from me. So for me, it’s more than taking courses – it’s about the discussions, and being around people who are very passionate about different disciplines, different areas, and different goals that really adds to the significance of being here.

Xiao Situ, is a first year M.A.R. comprehensive at Yale Divinity School and the ISM. She did her Ph.D. studies in art history at Yale before joining the Divinity School, and she is interested in integrating the arts with pastoral care and theology.

I grew up singing in church choirs. In high school, I was in a community chorus, and the director was also the organist at our church, and he ended up becoming my voice, piano and organ teacher. He really encouraged me to stay involved in church music and sacred music, influencing my decision to study music in college. I majored in sacred music and music education, and really loved the combination of the two. Music was what kept me involved in the church, but there were more things I wanted to explore theologically such as religious history and preaching, which is why I enrolled in divinity school. I then felt the call to be a pastor, which is something I had sensed earlier in my life but kind of ignored.

My spirituality is that of both a musician and a future pastor, which shapes how I think about pastoral ministry. While singing in a choir, you have to listen louder than you sing, and listen deeply. I see parallels between that and compassionate listening in pastoral theology. So I think it continues to be a place transcendent for worship, but also a neat intersection of spirituality.

My experience in the ISM has been great! I¹ve sung in Marquand, in recital chorus, and in repertory chorus, so I¹ve had the opportunity to perform and hone my musical skills. I¹ve taken organ lessons, a hymnology course, and am taking a songwriting course with Maggi Dawn now which is awesome. I¹ve taken Prophetic Preaching with Nora Tisdale, which is an upper level preaching course. The opportunity to be with other musicians and artists, as well as people pursuing academics and pastoral ministry has been great.

Kristian Kohler is in his final year of the Masters of Divinity program at the ISM and YDS. Originally from Redding, Pennsylvania, he serves as 2015-16’s Liturgical Coordinator for the University Church at Yale, and is pursuing ordained ministry in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America.

Interview and Photo by Tara Jamali, M.A.R. ’17

]]>Humans of the ISM | Bethany Carlson, M.Div. ’16http://www.ismadmissions.org/humans-of-the-ism-bethany-carlson-m-div-16/
Tue, 01 Mar 2016 17:44:54 +0000http://www.ismadmissions.org/?p=788In February of 2016, renowned journalist and poet Eliza Griswold spoke at the Whitney Humanities Center about her experience in reporting on women in Afghanistan, the Syrian refugee crisis, and persecution of Christians in Iraq under ISIS. She also discussed how her roles as poet and journalist intersect. Tara Jamali interviewed ISM student Bethany Carlson, M.Div. ’16, who was at the event, about her takaways from Griswold’s lecture:

The most dynamic part in going to an event like this is the ability to be vulnerable in the presence of someone else, and I really appreciated [Griswold’s] attention to this aspect and her being vulnerable with us. She talked about the struggle of trying to come up with an ethic for journalism, specifically in dealing with people who are tremendously suffering, and yet wanting or needing to have some sort of story.

As a poet, I pay attention to language. The tone [Griswold] had while reading her poetry, which was like a collection of images – very acerbic and concrete – revealed a lot about how she internalizes different roles as a journalist.

I feel like her style of putting images into words is very reactive, coming out of a need to memorialize things she’s not able to capture in the journalistic format. My own poetry is different in that I need to have a lot of images conveyed through words, not for the sake of remembering things necessarily, but for the sake of expressing the more fragile and fluid contours of art. It’s still reactive, but in a different way.

I currently lead the Asian Student Alliance at Yale Divinity School. As spokesperson for that group and a member of the ISM, the events of this past year and specifically last semester really forced me to think about how those two roles are conjoined, and how viewing myself as a woman of color enhances my art and sets a precedent for what I expect to see in the types of art represented at the ISM. So just working to be more vocal about that, creating more collaborative connections with artists outside the realm of our often Westernized context of the arts, has become really important to who I see myself as – not only in my location as an M.Div. candidate and potential minister in the arts, but as a creative person.

My experience at the ISM so far has been a lot of fun. I think the best part has been meeting so many interesting, smart, and kind individuals. Since I’m here for conducting, most of my studies are in music. A lot of my musical experiences in the past five years or so has been as a church musician, even though I’m not necessarily a person of faith.

I approach the idea of spirituality mostly in terms of community and singing with others. For instance, I have a small group that I sing with based in Hartford, Connecticut, and while we hold ourselves to a high musical level, we’re also really good friends. We’re always beaming after each rehearsal. Even if not spiritually transcendent, it is certainly a change – there is something we feel amongst us. The act of being connected is palpable. We can each tell what the other is thinking and feeling, even though we’re not directly communicating with words.

Where the role of a conductor and a conductor’s communication with an ensemble are concerned, there’s so much that has to do with what the conductor is thinking. The difficulty is in translating your thoughts into body language to the ensemble. It’s the act of being focused on the exact sound or emotion that you’re thinking of. If you’re really concentrating on that, they’ll understand. It starts with the very first beat and breath. Obviously your hands and gestures need to match your intent, but just really be focused on the emotion and intent, and the body will follow through. Then the choir will come in together with a collective breath, with the exact sound you’re looking for. It’s almost like telepathy.

Matthew Cramer is a first year choral conducting student in the ISM. He is a graduate of the Hartt School of the University of Hartford and hails from Nyack, New York.

Awet Andemicael, M.A.R. ’10.

A unique course offered through the ISM is REL:825, Vocal Development and Music Skills in Ministry, which is open to students desiring to improve their vocal skills, regardless of their musical background. Tara interviewed ISM alumna Awet Andemicael, M.A.R. ’10,with whom she took the course last fall. Andemicael is an operatic soprano, and current Ph.D. student in theology at Yale University, as well as a guest lecturer in Sacred Music at the ISM.

It was very exciting for me to see the kind of progress in vocal development that each of you made throughout the semester. Thinking about the vocal and musical dimensions, I came into this class with a strong sense that the purpose of it is the development of that particular student. So it’s not about impressing me or creating a studio of singers who are going to take on the world. Some of you may do so, but the point is for each of you to make significant progress based on your own frame of reference, your own innate skills, and your own needs for ministry. It was so amazing to hear the differences in your vocal tone and see the level of confidence all of you had at the end of the semester compared to the beginning. I was really impressed with your final projects! It wasn’t just the creativity of the projects, but the way you sang and presented yourselves – it all was thrilling!

Each time I’ve taught the course, it was different, because the students were very different. But I think this last time, there was something special about that particular group of students which made it an extraordinary experience for me. Each of you brought something special to the table. It was partly because of the size, because the class was much smaller this time, which created a unique intimacy and level of comfort. Also, everybody in the class seemed to be there for a reason, and worked so well with everyone else, that it was extraordinary to see what the Holy Spirit was doing in each of us and among us. My desire for all of you was certainly that you would improve your musical skills and have greater insights into the intersection of music and theology. I have a very deep desire for each of you to come to know the Lord more fully, more richly, and for you to have a sense of being one little corner in the Body of Christ.

Personally I’m more at ease in a context that has cultural diversity, ethnic diversity, and gender diversity. I grew up with a fair amount of diversity in my general neighborhood and where I went to school, and I have become for various reasons quite accustomed to being the only person of color in a certain context. I’ve gotten to know a lot of people from majority cultures I truly appreciate and admire, so this is not to put them down, but sometimes it can drain you a little bit when you’re constantly aware that you’re different from everyone else. So I thrive in a context where there are people of different backgrounds, even if their backgrounds are quite different from mine. I hope I can be effective in making people feel comfortable in a learning context, whether they come from the same ethnicity as mine, or a different ethnicity, or whether they’re a minority or majority. Every student is unique and important. It was such a special treat for me to have such a wide range of backgrounds in our class, and I think it very much enriched the learning experience for all of us.

Interviews by Tara Jamali, M.A.R. ’17.

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Humans of the ISM | Audrey Fernandez-Fraser and Patrick Murrayhttp://www.ismadmissions.org/humans-of-the-ism-audrey-fernandez-fraser-and-patrick-murray/
Tue, 09 Feb 2016 18:40:40 +0000http://www.ismadmissions.org/?p=742Audrey Fernandez-Fraser, M.Div 2016, comes to the ISM YDS from a multidisciplinary background that includes evolutionary biology, music composition, and singing. Her faith is influenced by Hinduism, Buddhism, Unitarian Universalism, and Mormonism. She is treasuring her time at YDS and the ISM, especially in daily prayer in Marquand Chapel, singing in the Yale Schola Cantorum, composing liturgical music, and taking some rad philosophy classes. She is pursuing a joint Masters of Social Work from Yeshiva University (MSW ’17), and she hopes to devote her working life to Internal Family Systems therapy, Nonviolent Communication, and making new and early music. She recently spoke with our “Humans of the ISM” reporter Tara Jamali about the interdisciplinary connections she’s made as a student at the ISM:

I’m writing a piece for the undergraduate composition class that I’m taking based on the story of Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch in the Book of Acts. I love that story, and I think it kind of connects to my experience here, and just my experience in the past several years with Christianity. Philip is so ready to preach the Gospel – he is ready to share – and the eunuch is so ready to learn. I just love how Philip expounds Isaiah for him, and they’re riding along, and a few minutes later he’s like, there’s some water right there! What stops you from being baptized? I just love that, and I hope it’s going to happen to me! It’s so exciting. So I guess I’m trying to put into music what I hope I will one day understand or put into words in terms of my own faith. I feel like I can preach through singing more than I can preach through words.

Canadian conductor Patrick Murray, M.M. ’16, is in his second year of the Masters of Music in Choral Conducting at the ISM, where he is the principal assistant conductor of the Yale Camerata and co-conductor of the Marquand Chapel Choir. In his conversation with Tara Jamali, he talked about the challenges, rewards, and value of choral conducting today:

There is a bit of a lingering stigma around choral music – that it isn’t necessarily as professional, say, as orchestral instrumental music – which in some ways is true. Choral conductors are often working with amateur or volunteer singers, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t good singers. They may simply have chosen to do other things with their lives and careers. So I’ve definitely encountered certain musicians who have tried to push me in other directions that would be seen by them as somehow more professional, more high art, or more successful. But I’ve sort of always known that’s not what I want to do. I want to work with singers embedded within and creating a community. I want to work with people who are volunteering their time because they love to make music. As a leader, you get something back out of that as well. I think in a good conductor-ensemble relationship it is a two-way street: you give a lot of yourself to your ensemble, but they also give back to you. And that community enriches everyone’s lives. Many of the most artistically rewarding experiences I’ve had as a singer, as a conductor, and as a composer have been with groups of people who are just volunteering their time to make art happen.

Interviews and photos by Tara Jamali, M.A.R. ’17

]]>What’s in a Personal Statement?http://www.ismadmissions.org/whats-in-a-personal-statement/
Fri, 08 Jan 2016 20:48:18 +0000http://www.ismadmissions.org/?p=729With less than one month to go before our Feb. 1st application deadline, I wanted to share a revised post from ISM alum and former Assistant Dean of Admissions at Yale Divinity School, Sean McAvoy (M.A.R. ’10), who takes readers through all of the necessary information you will need to craft the perfect Personal Statement! Above all, we want to get to know YOU in your personal statement–who you are, what you’ve done, and what you hope to accomplish at Yale. So fear not–armed with this information, you’re one step closer to checking the personal statement off of your list! (Originally posted on the Yale Divinity Admissions Blog, 409 Prospect, with revisions and edits by Katharine Luce.)

If there is one single part of the application that causes the most consternation, the most worry, and the most speculation, it’s most likely the Personal Statement.

A personal statement not to exceed 700 words explaining reasons for your interest in theological study at the Institute and the Divinity School. Include your preparation for or interest in the academic programs in liturgical studies, in religion and the arts, or in preaching, and/or interest in and preparation for the ministry in common formation with musicians.

Please upload a personal statement no more than two pages, double-spaced, and at least 10 pt font. The personal statement will help the Admissions Committee evaluate your application to Yale Divinity School and should address your academic and vocational goals; how a Yale Divinity School education can assist you in meeting those goals; and what gifts and experiences you feel you can contribute to your theological education at Yale. STM applicants should indicate their proposed academic field of study and the professor with whom they would like to work.

Do not be mistaken: The Personal Statement is by far the most important part of your application. It is your chance to introduce yourself to the admissions committee, tell us why you want to come here, and what coming here will do for you.

Do not be afraid: The Personal Statement is the way to make your application shine. It’s a great opportunity to make your case for graduate theological education in general, and studying at the ISM in particular.

The Statement is only 700 words long. This is not a lot of words. If you go overboard, and feel you have said everything you should and made it as tight as possible, do not despair. You will be fine. We want a well-written Statement, and some stories take a little longer to tell. If your Statement stretches to three pages or more, you should edit further. Remember Rule 13 of Strunk & White’s seminal The Elements of Style: “Omit needless words.”

(More links to help you with the writing process appear at the bottom of this page!)

No matter the degree you are applying for, your Personal Statement should tell the Admissions Committee three things:

– Who you are.

– What you want to do.

– How studying at the ISM and YDS will help you to do it.

Who you are is not meant to be an existential exercise in self-examination. Rather, we simply want to know what brings you to graduate theological education. It can be as simple as “Ever since I could read I have been fascinated with the Bible”, or something more complex, such as a personal situation that made you consider ministry or advanced study in religion and the arts. This section provides the context for your application to the ISM– why you’re wanting to attend in the first place.

What you want to do is the course of study you want to conduct. We do not mean by this a roadmap for the next two or three years – we do not expect you to have every class plotted in advance (this is why our application does not require a plan of study). But we do expect you to have more than a vague idea of what you’ll do when you get here. If you’re really gung-ho for ordination in your denomination, say that. If all you want is to study philosophical theology with John Hare, say that. If the New Testament is your thing, and you also want to learn practical ministerial skills, say that.

Even if none of the above apply to you, and all you have are certain questions about God, theology, or what discipleship and ministry look like in the modern age, that’s okay too, but say that in your essay. We like people who have questions, but we want to know what those questions are, and you should know them, too. This section provides the action for your time at YDS – what you’ll do when you get here.

How the ISM and YDS will help you to do it are the reasons why this is the right program for you.* This involves a little research on your behalf; what does the ISM offer that appeals to you? Is it our ecumenical environment?Or perhaps our sense of community? Maybe our world-class academics & faculty? Our artistic, literary, and musical resources? The way the ISM and the Div School integrate with the rest of Yale? Our practical training for ministry? The Berkeley Divinity School? Our many Joint-Degree Programs? Perhaps it’s something else–but be sure to tell us!

No matter what the reasons are (and they can be many), this is where you get to tell us how the ISM is a perfect fit for you, and why YDS is the best environment for your gifts and talents. To put it another way, here you explain how our programs in religion and the arts will serve your abilities and ambitions. It is the section where you provide the resolution to the rest of your Statement, marrying your context for study with the action you’ll take when you get to our unique institution.

For each degree program, the Statement should be a little different.

For Master of Divinity applicants, your Statement should explain why you want to go into ministry, and how music, liturgy, and the arts will function within your ministry. This is by nature a little more contextual/autobiographical than the others (caution: Do not write a purely autobiographical Statement), and you should describe the steps in your life that brought you to apply to the ISM. Call-language is especially appropriate here.

“Ministry” itself takes a variety of forms. We know that you may feel called to an academic career, and see the MDIV as the best way to achieve that. Please articulate your academic calling and how the MDIV fits into that process. Likewise, if your goal is ordained or lay ministry, tell us how Yale’s MDIV will best prepare you for your goal. If you simply feel called to ministry but aren’t sure what your ministry will look like, tell us why our program is the best place for you to explore those options.

For Master of Arts in Religion Concentrated applicants, your Statement should tell us what you want to study in the subject area to which you are applying. This is a little more specific/action-oriented than the others (again, caution: Do not write a plan of study) and you should describe what it is about the subject that fascinates you, what kind of questions you have, and why you want to study it in greater depth, and what makes Yale the best place to do so.

You should know the faculty in your area (ex. Peter Hawkins for the Religion in Literature Concentration), some of the classes, and the greater University-wide climate for your project, such as the opportunity to take courses outside of the Divinity School (Concentration students will need to take advantage of this). You should not simply give us a list of faculty and classes; the faculty in your Concentration will be reading your application, and they know what courses they teach. Rather, tell them how they and their courses can help you achieve your goals.

For Master of Arts in Religion Comprehensive applicants, your Statement should tell us why you would benefit from a graduate theological education that includes a variety of different subjects and discipliens. This can be a little more action-oriented; for instance, one of the best Statements I ever read for this degree described how the person wanted to pursue a career in religious journalism and needed a well-rounded graduate course of theological study to prepare for this.

The MAR Comprehensive is the ideal degree for someone who wants further education in theology but would feel constrained by a particular concentration. You will graduate with an excellent working knowledge of the Bible, Christian history, its antecedents, theological implications for music, literature and the arts, the practice of its ministry, as well as exposure to a variety of other aspects of Christianity. Tell us why this is for you.

For Master of Sacred Theology applicants, you Statement must be as specific as possible. This is the most resolution-oriented of all the Statements. You need to have a project to work on, and one or two faculty members to work with. If you do not have both of those elements, your Statement needs to be rewritten.

The STM is the only degree we offer that requires a thesis, which itself requires great focus from the first day of school onwards. Your Statement should reflect this focus, as well as a profound awareness of what YDS offers that will enable you to make the most of your year at Yale.

For everyone, the best advice I can give is this: Your statement should tell us who you are, and communicate your passion. There’s a reason you want to come to the ISM. There may be several. Tell us what they are! We want (and the world needs) passionate, engaged students who have come alive, and will do so on our campus and beyond. Your Personal Statement is where you can tell us what makes you come alive, and why YDS will help you do that.

And a final note: PLEASE PROOFREAD!

The following are immensely helpful. They are all free, online resources (apologies if you find any of their rules broken in this post):

*We recognize that many of our applicants will be applying to more than one graduate school; your reasons for attending each school will be different. Never use the exact same essay for multiple schools, swapping out only the institution’s name via Control + F (it’s also very embarrassing when this inevitably fails, and your YDS Statement ends with “…and that’s why Harvard Divinity School is the best place for me.” This happens every year.). We can spot a generic submission pretty quickly. The ISM, YDS and its peers are different enough that you should be able to articulate to each of us why our unique programs are well-suited for you.

“I’m assistant conductor at Yale Glee Club this year. Last Friday we traveled by train to the Yale Club in New York City, which is kind of a tradition that’s been in place for many years. It was a great concert, and on the way back, the Glee Club basically took up an entire empty train car. The conductor of the train was so excited to have us there, and he thought it would be hilarious if he took a video for his friends and family of the Glee Club singing, and him pretending to conduct them because he’s a train conductor. So he took this video, and the publicity chair of the Glee Club posted it to Facebook, and suddenly it had all these views and it went viral…the Glee Club was invited to perform on Good Morning America, which didn’t work out because the train conductor couldn’t be there. It was just a great little moment of holiday cheer to participate in. Obviously all of the Glee Club students were super excited about it, and also the train conductor was super excited to share it with all of his friends and family. It was great!”

Originally from Traverse City, Michigan, Sarah Paquet (M.M. ’16) is in her second year of the choral conducting program at the ISM. In addition to conducting the Glee Club, she serves as Chapel Choir director at Marquand, and will earn her Masters of Music in 2017.

Timothy Cahill, M.A.R. ’16. Photo by Tara Jamali, M.A.R. ’17.

I spent twenty-five years writing about art and making art squarely within the tradition of late modernism, and it never felt like enough. For all that time I had no faith life. I wasn’t an atheist or agnostic; it was worse. I could feel spirit crackling all around me and I just didn’t pay attention. About six years ago that began to change. I came here to more fully understand the relationship between the arts and matters of the sacred. I mean, I knew there was a connection, but couldn’t articulate the connection. Now that I’m in my fifth semester here (because of going part time), I’ve begun to know something about that. Art exists for itself, but artists – they are human beings first, and their first duty is to their humanity. When an artist is making art, it’s about the work of art – the artist isn’t trying to save the world – but any of us, whether we’re artists, scholars, bricklayers, or candlestick makers, have our humanity to answer to as well, and the beginning and end of that humanity is what we call God, the Infinite, the Unknowable Source. Our meaning and our purpose lie finally in our relationship with that which is bigger than us and with creation – the world, people, love. That is what has come out of my time here: to be able to say this with some sense of confidence and without embarrassment. I’ve long resisted the idea of art for art’s sake – I think that’s too simplistic, too extreme. But even more now is my conviction that artists can’t exist only for their art’s sake. That artists have a deeper responsibility in terms of their own humanity, as we all do. Does that mean that artists owe us something through their art? Not necessarily, no. But when I look at artwork that plainly has abdicated its humanity, its compassion, its mystery, and exists strictly for some sort of an effect – iconoclastic or transgressive or ironic – then I lose interest in it. I’ve lost interest in it and its capacity to say something of value.

I’d never looked at Humans of New York – I’d heard about it as a phenomenon, but I’d never seen it, so I went there today. And I saw that some of the excerpts were really long, and some were one line…and it’s like, well, I never feel more vulnerable or less myself than when I’m being photographed. I look at people’s faces all the time because I was and still am a photographer, and I love people’s faces, and what that man does on that site is really a very interesting, lovely thing, because he gets all those interesting, expressive faces. My face feels more like it hides what’s inside me than reveals what’s inside me.

Timothy Cahill is an M.A.R. student in Religion and Literature, and also serves as the Visual Arts Editor of Letters, an online publication that promotes writers and visual artists whose work concerns matters of religion and spirituality.